China State Construction sees 28 billion yuan trapped in stock

By IBT Staff Reporter On 07/29/09 AT 7:32 PM

China State Construction Engineering Group (CSCEC), the world's largest stock offering in 16 months, had 28 billion yuan capital trapped in stock at their debut in Shanghai as its price fell to 6.53 yuan compared to the opening price of 6.70 yuan.

The country's largest home builder began with an opening price of 6.70 yuan, it reached the peak of 7.96 yuan at 9:43 am, up 65.3% from an initial public offering price of 4.18 yuan.

However, the stock prices went down afterwards, and the price of CSCEC slumped to 6.53 yuan, ending the day below the opening price but 56.22% higher than the issue price.

The IPO of CSCEC last week raised $50.16 billion, making it the largest since US credit card group Visa raised $19.7bn in March 2008, according to financial data provider Dealogic.

CSCEC on Wednesday made a total deal of 29.2 billion yuan, with the exchange rate of 69.55%, according to the traders.

A total of 28 billion yuan asset was trapped if calculated with the closing price of 6.53 yuan,

Wang Mingzhi, a Shanghai-based analyst with GF Securities, said the fair value of CSCEC's share price is about five yuan.

According to Li Kongyi, an analyst in Essence Securities, the big board has been rising in the early period and the listing of CSCEC helped investors call back the volatility.

Li said the issuing price of 4.18 yuan is reasonable, and the opening price is also acceptable to be between 6 yuan and 7 yuan.

However, objectively speaking, the trapped capital of 28 billion yuan by CSCEC on the first day of its listing would be a heavy blow to the activity of market liquidity, Li added.

The construction and real estate have a quite bright future despite the fluctuation of economy, Sun Wenjie, chairman of CSCEC, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Sun also said that they see the promising opportunity of real estate in the future ten or 20 years. The company will buy lands as long as they have the funds.

He said CSCEC is now interested in buying large-scale lands through auction in the future.

China ended a nine-month moratorium on new IPOs in June, but it remains wary about overly dramatic price fluctuations on the first day of trading.

While allowing new IPOs, the securities regulator has issued rules aimed at reining in large surges in the price of newly listed shares, including a ban on investors using multiple accounts.

Banking regulators have also tightened lending rules in an attempt to prevent bank loans, extended as part of China's economic stimulus measures, from being used to speculate on the stock market.

But the moves seem to have had little effect. Sichuan Expressway, China's first IPO after the moratorium, soared 175pc at its debut in Shanghai on Monday.

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